Dear Child-free/less friends … (yes, rant incoming)

Thank you for all your invaluable advice as to how I should be raising my child and how I should be as a parent.

I am not sure if you are entirely across with parenthood. I’ll let you in on one important bit of information. Ready? Yes? Ok. Here goes. There is no such thing as sick days off. That’s right! We don’t get to take days off ‘work’ when we’re sick. You know, all the times when you call in sick at your work for feeling a bit meh? Ya know, it’s that easy? Well, we don’t do that. So it is best we don’t get sick.

So. When I get an onset of something or rather, I am going to take all the medicinal drugs I can take to not get too sick, to get better faster, to be able to function tackling the illness and looking after my child. And no, I will not let the fever/whatever do its thing and run its course. I can’t afford to be sick. I am responsible for keeping a little human alive. I will do whatever it is to make sure I am able to.

So. You think I should let my very young child to crawl around the floor in a pub to build up immunity? Or that I should take my child to swim class? Or that I should put my child in day care to socialise with other kids and to swap germs? Oh it’s ok for them to be sick, you say. Have you ever seen your child being so sick and you feel so helpless?

What do I feed my child? All kids love bananas? Well mine doesn’t. Sorry to shatter your expertise in child rearing. Bananas can also cause constipation. Have you seen the pain your child go through with constipation?

Let me ask you one very important question. How many babies have you conceived, carried, birthed and raised?

Oh none?

You never have to see your own child be in so much pain that you hope you were the one going through it instead?

You never have to stay up all night to make sure your child is breathing?